Wednesday, April 25, 2018

LGBTQ Group Decides To Not Award MSNBC's Joy Ann Reid

The LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG National has rescinded Joy Ann Reid’s allyship award in light of Mediaite‘s report on newly unearthed homophobic posts from the MSNBC pundit’s old blog.

While Reid was slated to accept PFLAG’s Straight for Equality in Media award next month at the organization’s 45th anniversary celebration, the group opted to take back the offer after dozens of blog posts from The Reid Report containing anti-gay material were uncovered by an Internet sleuth.

However, Reid, who apologized in December for writing homophobic posts in 2007, 2008, and 2009 about Congressman Charlie Crist, claims she did not write these newly unearthed entries from The Reid Report. Instead, she alleges nefarious actors planted them to damage her reputation — an unverified claim that has been questioned by many media figures.

Reid apologized last December when a Twitter user uncovered posts containing homophobic remarks on The Reid Report, a blog she ran before became an icon of the #Resistance movement.

“As someone who is not a member of the LGBT community, I regret the way I addressed the complex issue of the closet and speculation on a person’s sexual orientation with a mocking tone and sarcasm,” Reid wrote in her statement.

She added: “It was insensitive, tone deaf and dumb.”

Meanwhile, The Huffington Post reports Reid is standing by her claim that her now-defunct blog was the target of a cyberattack in which homophobic content was added to the site.

A cybersecurity expert working with Reid said in a statement to HuffPost on Tuesday that he found evidence five months ago of “suspicious activity” and that the alleged hacking was the subject of an ongoing federal investigation.